Condemn Lenin, Stalin repression: Russian Orthodox official
July 29, 2011
A leading Russian Orthodox Church official said recently that “our society, state and people” must condemn the crimes that took place during the Communist regimes of Vladimir Lenin and Joseph Stalin.
“Many are trying to tell us that that period should be forgotten together with the great number of victims,” said Archpriest Vsevolod Chaplin, head of the Synodal Department for Church and Society Relations.
Russians “must do their best so that no one and nothing is forgotten,” said Chaplin as he recalled the actions of “the criminals--Stalin, Lenin, [Leon] Trotsky, [Moisei] Uritsky, [Yakov] Sverdlov--who organized the Red Terror and Stalin repressions.”
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Posted by: -
Jul. 29, 2011 10:21 AM ET USA
It is very refreshing to read of well-placed people in the former Soviet Union having these thoughts. I sometimes get the impression that many present-day Russians think, if at all, of these men only as the losers of the Cold War. Chaplin's list of horrible men has a surprising omission, though: Lavrenti Beria. The Wickipedia article on him should be required reading for liberal American college students.
